Bush said: “We must also find a sensible and humane way to deal with people here illegally. Illegal immigration is complicated, but it can be resolved. And it must be resolved in a way that upholds both our laws and our highest ideals.”

FACT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONDUCTING POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED RAIDS: After Tam Tran, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, was featured in an October USA Today article and testified before a House committee on immigration, federal officers forcibly arrested her family in the middle of the night. Tran’s family was detained on a “years-old deportation order,” even though they have been in regular communication with immigration officials for almost 20 years since arriving in the United States. [USA Today, 10/8/07, 10/16/07; OC Register, 10/17/07; House, 5/18/07]

FACT — LEGAL IMMIGRANTS FACE LENGTHY WAIT PERIOD: For the next two years, legal immigrants will have to wait an average of 18 months to have their citizenship petitions processed, up from seven months or less last year. By contrast, the DHS immigration agency has worked to “speed” the deportation of more than “200,000 immigrants who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country.” [New York Times, 1/18/08]

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